(Reuters) - Boeing Co's International Space Station program manager Mark Mulqueen will leave the company next month and be replaced by the senior official overseeing Boeing's Starliner astronaut capsule, a spokesman said on Friday. Mulqueen's retirement is the latest management switch-up to touch space station operations, as NASA's space station program manager Kirk Shireman retires Friday to take a job in the private sector. The move comes as the space station, a football field-sized research post 250 miles above the ground, undergoes a shift to commercial operations and as NASA increasingly welcomes companies to stimulate private space tourism. John Mulholland, who managed Boeing's Starliner program during a high-profile test mission failure last year, will take the helm of Boeing's space station operations as the company renegotiates its decades-old contract with NASA.

Source: International New York Times June 19, 2020 21:11 UTC